My Girl (2005)

This drama is a classic for a reason, the exact kind of rom-com, melo, crack drama most drama lovers search for. It's got the quirky, persistent, lovable female lead who Stays quirky and persistent and lovable the entirety of the story. It has a male lead who Starts the drama as an actually humane, likable person with a decent moral compass (although more on that later). The premise, while completely implausible, is still a lot of fun full of hijinks and mishaps and fun bonding moments. And like many rom-com/melo's from it’s time (and many modern rom-com/melo's as well, to be honest), it utilizes the ‘drag the main conflict out far longer than necessary’ trope for the sake of creating conflict, but of all the classic dramas that rely on this trope, this is definitely one of the better ones.

Unfortunately, that last point is exactly the reason why I ultimately had to drop this drama, despite all of the other wonderful things about it.

The lie starts out fun, harmless, then reality sets in and our leads begin to understand the age-old saying 'Oh what a tangled web.' And that's fine. The lie Should become a weight around their necks that they have to struggle with until they eventually throw it off in exchange for the truth. It just. Takes. Too. Long. for them to cut the rope keeping the weight tied to their necks. There's No reason, past about episode 11/12 (and that's honestly too long for my tastes, but I'm trying to be reasonable here), for the lie to continue. And before anyone starts shouting 'But then there's no conflict driving the rest of the drama!' I'm not saying they should have ended up together by ep 13, leaving three episodes as unnecessary filler. There was plenty of conflict to mine from the reveal of the lie that would have pushed the drama forward for another few episodes before our leads could get their happy ending. Grandpa could oppose the relationship because it started with a lie, a lie that ultimately hurt the rest of the family in one of the deepest ways possible (which, from reading spoilers about the last three episodes, is sort of what happens in the story anyway, just in an unbearably rushed way). They could have been separated for a time in punishment for their actions and maybe spent some of that time both atoning and pleading on their love's behalf. Hell, they could have just have a big, knockout, drag out fight about it and 'broke up' for a couple of episodes. There was just no reason for the lie to live so long.

But what's worse than the lie lasting longer than it deserved to is what it ultimately does to our leads. It ruins a lot of what was so good about the male lead at the start of the drama. Gong Chan is extremely honorable and responsible and decent in the first half (minus the lie about his cousin). He's obviously not the sort to lie before the drama starts, and he creates the lie out of a desperate, misguided desire to do good. And as I said about the importance of the lie becoming a weight around their necks, I also think it's important that we see the lie change him and turn him into the sort of person who would betray his family, the woman he loves, his own self for self-serving reasons. But the drama never actually explores this. It just makes the lie go on forever like the song that never ends, and by the end, you just don’t like Gong Chan that much any more.

It's sort of the opposite of what most old-school dramas do with there male leads where they take a horrible person and make them a kinder human. This time, they took human who was already kind and made him terrible.

Alternatively, the lie doesn't turn Yoo Rin into some sort of terrible person but rather into a more sympathetic, conflicted, incredibly sad character. It doesn't take away her spunk, but it severely dampens her personality. And again, this is exactly how I think it Should have played out. While either of them could have ended the lie if they really wanted to, and ultimately, they are both to blame for not doing so, I can understand Yoo Rin's difficulty with it more than Gong Chan's. She has more to lose by ending the lie. Gong Chan could lose the woman he loves, but he'll still have his family at the end of everything. They might be angry with him for a very long time, but underneath that anger will be love. Yoo Rin doesn't have that luxury. When the lie ends, she is left with nothing. Not the man she loves, not the family she's come to love, she's back where she started, homeless and now with no idea where her father has ended up. What's interesting about that is that out of the two of them, she's also clearly the one desperately Wanting to end the lie the most but continuing to agree to keep the ruse going because she cares so much for Gong Chan and for his family.

And this is where the drama lost me in terms of her character.

More than anything else in this drama, I wanted the story to spend time exploring Yoo Rin becoming close to the family emotionally and how it must have made her feel lying to them the closer she got to them, but the drama never does that. It sidesteps this entirely. We see her feel bad about the act of lying itself, feeling guilty over what they are doing to each other and to Gong Chan's family, and we see her spend lots of time with the family, all of them genuinely coming to like each other and enjoying being in each other's company. But there’s very little discussion over how much of a toll lying to these people that she's come to care deeply about must be having on her. She has to be lying awake at night thinking about how terrible grandpa is going to feel when the lie is revealed, how much the entire family is going to hate her for what she's done, how when it's all over...they won't love her anymore. This is where her habit of eating when she feels guilty could have played so much more of a prominent role than it did. What better way to show the guilt and shame she must feel over lying to so many people.

And I'm about to say something I can't believe I'm about to say, but I think this is the first time I’ve wanted the evil second female lead to Succeed in her pursuit of being evil. Not because I didn’t want the leads together or because I had any love for the second female lead (Dear God In Heaven No). I wanted her plans for revealing the lie to succeed...because I wanted the lie to end so the leads could finally, bloody get together. I wanted them to face the repercussions of their decisions, and I wanted them to get together and be happy, because I really liked them as a couple.

But neither of them could ever muster up the moral courage to end the lie, and the writers kept thwarting the second female lead at every turn, thus denying me the relief I was so desperately seeking.

And now I'll end my complaints by turning everyone in the drama community against me by saying that the secondary male lead is exactly the sort of pesky second male lead that I sort-of, kind-of, maybe hate in most dramas where they appear. I know a lot of people really enjoy their second lead feels, and that most secondary male leads in older dramas are just significantly better people than the male leads are, and that's cool and all, but I typically don't experience second lead feels. When a drama writer tells me who's supposed to end up together at the end, I believe them. I put all thoughts and ideas and secondary options in a drawer somewhere, and I invest in the main couple, because I want the writers to make their couple work. When I Can't invest in the main couple, I generally just don't invest in the drama at all, and I go watch something else.

On the rare occasion that I Do experience second lead feels...I ignore them, because I can't handle that kind of pain in my life.

So yeah. The second lead quickly went from roguish fun to obnoxious irritation for me. It's 100% hypocritical of me to feel this way about persistent secondary male leads when I often adore persistent female leads, but when there's an established couple in a drama and a secondary male lead refuses to accept it (and this goes for secondary lead feels too), I want to hit him over the head with a frying pan.

Part of me, even still, wants to finish the last three episodes of this drama, but I know I'll still be dissatisfied when they're over. So I have to accept it. It's just not worth it for me.

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